Which is the bigger commitment - Buying a house or getting married?

Posted: 19/11/2012

Halifax carried out research based on this question, which is the bigger commitment, buying a house or getting married and found that around 28% of 25 to 34 year olds in the UK believe that buying a house is the bigger commitment. 64% of the people interviewed aged between 25 to 34 years old had bought a house with a partner but were not married.

The report by Halifax also showed that one in four 25 to 34 year olds were married when they became first time buyers compared to almost three quarters of 35 to 44 year olds. Halifax’s research also showed that more than 1 in 10 women pay more than half of their average income on a mortgage compared to only one in twenty men.

Other findings showed that almost 1 in 10 people don’t know how much they owe in their mortgage to the nearest £10,000 but over 1 in 4 claim to know exactly how much they owe on their mortgage. Another interesting finding was that 1 in 6 single home owners aged between 25 and 34 pay more then half of their monthly income on their mortgage and 80% of the people interviewed believe they would find it harder to secure a mortgage if they were becoming a first time buyer now. This includes 92% of those earning between £14,001 and £21,000 but drops down to 75% for those earning over £55,001.

Another report by HomeOwners Alliance shows that homeownership has fallen to its lowest level since 1988 at 64.7% and under half of the properties in London are actually occupied in by their owners.

The report also revealed that around 5 million households are locked out of the property market as a result of high house prices because they have been forced into the rental market which has resulted in increasingly high rents.

The data that the HomeOwners Alliance used was from the Department for Communities and Local Government which counterparts Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The data also showed that London has been the area mostly affected by the ‘homeownership crisis’ with less than half of the properties in the capital owner occupied which is the lowest level since the figures began in 1991.

However, even with these poor figures, homeownership remains the most desired form of housing tenure in the UK with 86% of Britons wanting to own their own home including those living in social housing according to the British Social Attitudes Survey.

Do you believe that buying a house with a partner is a bigger commitment than getting married and are you one of the 86% of people who aspire to own your own home rather than being a life time renter?